What is Permsteading?

[Lollykoko]

And I aint about to hold hands with a hippie to do so

Darn it, George. We were getting along so well too! My oldest son has called me a bleeding heart do-gooder for years and years. I would have been a hippie, but I had kids to raise, so life happened.

Lucky for me, there has always been a little bit of ant in my nature, so when the right place came along I was able to come closer to my long held dream of living in a commune. So what if everybody will be related to me by blood or marriage!

I suppose the first time I read the word permaculture was reading about the "Hobbit House" in Wales. I didn't notice it at the time, you see. It was years later when I was at the site again and saw the word was part of the story that I regretted all the time lost looking for general information about sustainable living that led to disaster prep sorts of websites. It was there I got a link that took me to a YouTube video (about a rocket mass heater, I think), which led to other places and eventually, here. The last eight months I have been like a sponge, soaking up all the information I can.

Whatever permsteading is, we are going to do it, this year.

[George Collins]

Maybe I shoulda said, "And I aint about to hold hands with a hippie to do so."

Cute-babe hippies . . . we can work something out.

And you and I probably have more similarities than differences.

[GrahamB]

I thought I should introduce myself, being new to the forum, and reading through some of the threads I thought this would be the perfect discussion to do it on. I'm an English redneck, married to an American beauty. I moved to the States about five years ago and we moved into our own home with four acres in SW Missouri last July. We have about three acres of grazing that had been used for cattle before we got here. We have cattle all around us, but we are thinking about chickens and meat goats eventually. In the meantime we are developing our garden plots and are waiting for fifty wild edible tree seedlings to arrive from the MDC. We intend to have an edible forest (we have a small woodlot leading down to a small stock pond), and we want to reinforce the boundary fence line with edibles too.
I have been a member of several homesteading and permaculture forums for a while now, but like has been mentioned here, they are too elitist for my tastes. I have also become a little tired of all the radical doomsday talk in a couple of them. To me, the idea of feeding my family from things I have grown or raised, while helping to improve the environment a little, is far more important than how much food I can hoard, or what I'm going to do in the case of a zombie attack.
I like the idea of getting something from other peoples trash, and I am currently trying to grow Oyster mushrooms in coffee grounds I have collected from the school my wife and I work at.
I have read so much on permaculture and sustainable farming in the last year, but I have only scratched the surface. I can probably learn more by doing it and hanging out with you folks than from any books.

[matt walker]

Graham, welcome! Really glad you decided to join us, and I'm looking forward to following your journey on your land. I'd love to hear more details on the mushroom project, if you'd care to share. Maybe start a thread? I just yesterday ordered a kit from FungiPerfecti for inoculating the garden. I noticed they had a "coffee oyster" kit. I'd love to learn more about that process.

[GrahamB]

Thanks Matt, and I will get a thread going about the mushrooms as soon as I get home this evening. I'm kind of experimenting with it at the moment, so hopefully we can all learn by my mistakes.

[Lollykoko]

It's good to meet you, Graham. I'll be looking forward to that mushroom thread too!

[boo]

I love this thread.......I knew what homesteading was, & I knew what permaculture was.....problem is that I don't have acres of land & I thought I couldn't do much with an L shaped garden 7 metres wide by 22 metres long. I've tried to do the permaculture thing anyway (with no "proper" training) and then I "stumbled" upon this site and a light went on in my head.....I had always thought you had to do one or the other, that the concepts weren't interchangeable...I have no idea why I thought that but just reading the name of this site (and delving in) was enough to make me want to pull on the gardening gloves and "have at it".
I'm also here to learn and I am in awe at what the members of this forum are doing.......I love Robert Harts work, I love Geoff Lawtons work, I love Sepp Holtzers (spelling??) work, I love David Holmgrens work, etc etc etc but I also love seeing the work that you are all doing.
And George......I do have an Aussie accent - but I'm not Geoff Lawton (I wish, but I'm built different), I wasn't born in a place with a nice German name and nor do I have huge hands like Sepp H & I don't garden in a suit or have an English accent like Robert H either.....so I guess I'll either have to go "eco-hippie freak" and grow dreadlocks or get into it and work with what I've got.

[matt walker]

Boo, I'm having a heck of great morning here thanks to you and everyone here. I'm really so glad to hear that what you are finding here resonates with you. It means a lot to me that there are folks like you and the rest of the gang here out there. The more I look around the web, the more I am reminded that we need a place like this, where we can share our projects, inspirations, ideas, and dreams in an environment that is free of the framework of preconceived notions about any certain style. I really loved the video of Geoff Lawton you posted, the tour of PRI or whatever it's called. I was encouraged to see how important is was for his program to have both Food Forest type plantings, and more traditional crop techniques where food production was paramount. I think I've always gotten the message that it was one or the other as well. Like, "polyculture ALWAYS makes more food" type messages, which made me feel bad for growing a row of potatoes or something. Come to find out, the way I do it, some poly culture, some mono, some food forest, some grazing, some raised beds, some swales, etc, is exactly what he's doing. I LOVED it. Thanks so much for being here and sharing man, I'm getting re-inspired every day.

[boo]

I'm so glad you're having a good day. I "poked" a few more video's up just in case they were of some use to someone. I also trawl the net for information but I'm not so competent in translating what I watch, actually onto the ground (yet). I'm getting a lot of value from this forum and the "light is getting brighter" the more I read - it's almost scary when I think of the plans I'm making now for the garden. But on the down side.......I've just asked for advice (again) so that I'm not making too many "learning experiences happen".

[Billy Chambless]